“The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics” (GWAS hits replicate across populations; dominance genetic variation explains little of variation—most continues to be additive.)
Nasal cycle (One thing I find interesting about the nasal cycle is that even though it’s ultra-noticeable when you have a cold or stuffy nose, a lot of people seem to have either never realized that they have a cycle or assume it’s a personal idiosyncrasy of their nose. Sort of the opposite of the typical mind fallacy.)
Practice of Wisdom by Josh Kaufman. I don’t quite agree with all the characterizations (prudence, in particular, has issues), but overall a concise description of many useful mental skills.
Ya‐Qin Hu , David Kay Ferguson , Subir Bera & Cheng‐Sen Li (2008): Seed hairs of poplar trees as natural airborne pollen trap for allergenic pollen grains, Grana, 47:3, 241-245. - They did it in a botany garden, which means that pollen diversity could have been higher than in an average street, but still… it’s like, ‘we serve any pollen in the city’.
Athanasios Damialis & Dimitrios Gioulekas (2006): Airborne allergenic fungal spores and meteorological factors in Greece: Forecasting possibilities, Grana, 45:2, 122-129. - the section ‘statistical method’ occupies about 1.5 pages; it would be cool if someone who can actually understand it chewed it out for people like me. Overall, this is one of those things that ‘belong to the future’. The sheer monitoring needed to get that many datapoints seems to me unpracticable.
Another one with flashy statistics is Hector L. D’antoni & Frank Schäbitz (1990): Pollen analysis for the generation of environmental hypothesis, Grana, 29:4, 295-300.
Annette Andersen (1985): Microfungi in Beds and their Relation to House-Dust Mites, Grana, 24:1, 55-59. - This one is so sweet. Two beds have been examined monthly over a year for the occurrence of viable micro fungi...
Michael S. Zavada , Stephanie M. McGraw & Melissa A. Miller (2007): The role of clothing fabrics as passive pollen collectors in the north‐eastern United States, Grana, 46:4, 285-291. - “Clothing may be a primary avenue of ingress that contributes to the contamination of indoor air quality at the workplace and the home.”
Bernardus Speelberg , Egidius Panis & Jan G. R. De Monchy (1991): Reduction in skin test reactions to inhaled allergens during a 12 weeks stay in the alpine climate, Grana, 30:1, 155-160. - ”...Thus a reduced exposure to airborne allergens may be one of the reasons why asthmatic patients benefit from a stay in the alpine climate.”
E. Fernandez-Caldas , M. C. Swanson , J. Pravda , P. Welsh , J. W. Yunginger & C. E. Reed (1989): Immunochemical Demonstration of Red Oak Pollen Aeroallergens outside the Oak Pollination Season, Grana, 28:3, 205-209. - “Some authors have suggested that patients may suffer allergic symptoms not only from tree pollen but also from the leaves, leaf hairs, or sap, as well (Fonde 1935, Rudolph and Cohen 1932, Ostrov 1984). Our findings are consistent with this suggestion...”
Jean C. Emberlin , Jane Norris-Hill & R. H. Bryant (1990): A calendar for tree pollen in London, Grana, 29:4, 301-309. - “Although three years are insufficient to confirm the length of the reproductive rhythms, the patterns evident so far indicate that [birch] Betula and [oak] Quercus vary in phase with each other on a biennial basis, having both achieved peaks concentrations in 1987 and 1989. In contrast both [ash] Fraxinus and [plane] Platanus attained peak production in the intervening year. Other species such as [chestnut] Castanea, [beech] Fagus and [pine] Pinus seem to exhibit longer cycles which cannot be determined at this stage.”—Someday, vacations will be planned using this kind of ‘nature compatibility’ forecasts...
Short Online Texts Thread
Everything is heritable:
“Eight thousand years of [human] natural selection in Europe”, Mathieson et al 2015 (Khan)
“The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics” (GWAS hits replicate across populations; dominance genetic variation explains little of variation—most continues to be additive.)
Politics/religion:
“Break-In at Y-12: How a handful of pacifists and nuns exposed the vulnerability of America’s nuclear-weapons sites.”
“The Irish Slave Trade—The Forgotten “White” Slaves; The Slaves That Time Forgot”
Breast attitudes in North & South Korea
“Longevity of popes and artists between the 13th and the 19th century”, Carrieri & Serraino 2005
The redemption movement
“The Lesson of Iraq”
“Different modes of discourse”
The iron law of oligarchy
Statistics/AI/meta-science:
“Compliance with Results Reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov”, Anderson et al 2015 (incentives matter)
“The Mystery Machine: End-to-end Performance Analysis of Large-scale Internet Services” (commentary)
“Many Labs 3: Evaluating participant pool quality across the academic semester via replication” (commentary)
“p Values are not Error Probabilities”, Hubbard & Bayarri 2003 (excerpts)
“Most Published Research Findings Are False—But a Little Replication Goes a Long Way”, Moonesinghe 2007
“Understanding Bayes Theorem With Ratios”
“Mice Fall Short as Test Subjects for Some of Humans’ Deadly Ills”
Psychology/biology:
“Coincidental killers: We assume that microbes evolved to attack humans when actually we are just civilian casualties in a much older war”
“The myopia boom: Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions. Some scientists think they have found a reason why”
“New Improved Lottery”: the Premium Bond
Nasal cycle (One thing I find interesting about the nasal cycle is that even though it’s ultra-noticeable when you have a cold or stuffy nose, a lot of people seem to have either never realized that they have a cycle or assume it’s a personal idiosyncrasy of their nose. Sort of the opposite of the typical mind fallacy.)
Technology:
“Hacking the Papal Election”
“In High-Tech Japan, the Fax Machines Roll On”
the qanat/karez irrigation system in Turpan
Economics:
“What’s Changed about the Standard of Living? It’s Complicated. But Hopeful.”
“Iceland Looks to Export Power Bubbling From Below”
“In China, Families Bet It All on College for Their Children”
“Assembling the Billing Block” (the power struggle behind film credits)
Philosophy:
“The Great Filter—Are We Almost Past It?”, Hanson 1998
Moral anti-realism
Fiction:
“The Cambist and Lord Iron” (discussion)
“Extracts from the Club Diary” (Stross; Coffee steampunk, Mars, the end of the world) & “It Was All For The Tuna”
“Unlock your Spock” (Star Trek poem for Leonard Nimoy)
http://chriskresser.com/a-beginners-guide-to-scientific-research
A good overview—probably not a lot new for most people here, but I liked the bit about hypotheses that simply don’t get considered.
Practice of Wisdom by Josh Kaufman. I don’t quite agree with all the characterizations (prudence, in particular, has issues), but overall a concise description of many useful mental skills.
Ya‐Qin Hu , David Kay Ferguson , Subir Bera & Cheng‐Sen Li (2008): Seed hairs of poplar trees as natural airborne pollen trap for allergenic pollen grains, Grana, 47:3, 241-245. - They did it in a botany garden, which means that pollen diversity could have been higher than in an average street, but still… it’s like, ‘we serve any pollen in the city’.
Athanasios Damialis & Dimitrios Gioulekas (2006): Airborne allergenic fungal spores and meteorological factors in Greece: Forecasting possibilities, Grana, 45:2, 122-129. - the section ‘statistical method’ occupies about 1.5 pages; it would be cool if someone who can actually understand it chewed it out for people like me. Overall, this is one of those things that ‘belong to the future’. The sheer monitoring needed to get that many datapoints seems to me unpracticable. Another one with flashy statistics is Hector L. D’antoni & Frank Schäbitz (1990): Pollen analysis for the generation of environmental hypothesis, Grana, 29:4, 295-300.
Annette Andersen (1985): Microfungi in Beds and their Relation to House-Dust Mites, Grana, 24:1, 55-59. - This one is so sweet. Two beds have been examined monthly over a year for the occurrence of viable micro fungi...
Michael S. Zavada , Stephanie M. McGraw & Melissa A. Miller (2007): The role of clothing fabrics as passive pollen collectors in the north‐eastern United States, Grana, 46:4, 285-291. - “Clothing may be a primary avenue of ingress that contributes to the contamination of indoor air quality at the workplace and the home.”
Bernardus Speelberg , Egidius Panis & Jan G. R. De Monchy (1991): Reduction in skin test reactions to inhaled allergens during a 12 weeks stay in the alpine climate, Grana, 30:1, 155-160. - ”...Thus a reduced exposure to airborne allergens may be one of the reasons why asthmatic patients benefit from a stay in the alpine climate.”
E. Fernandez-Caldas , M. C. Swanson , J. Pravda , P. Welsh , J. W. Yunginger & C. E. Reed (1989): Immunochemical Demonstration of Red Oak Pollen Aeroallergens outside the Oak Pollination Season, Grana, 28:3, 205-209. - “Some authors have suggested that patients may suffer allergic symptoms not only from tree pollen but also from the leaves, leaf hairs, or sap, as well (Fonde 1935, Rudolph and Cohen 1932, Ostrov 1984). Our findings are consistent with this suggestion...”
Jean C. Emberlin , Jane Norris-Hill & R. H. Bryant (1990): A calendar for tree pollen in London, Grana, 29:4, 301-309. - “Although three years are insufficient to confirm the length of the reproductive rhythms, the patterns evident so far indicate that [birch] Betula and [oak] Quercus vary in phase with each other on a biennial basis, having both achieved peaks concentrations in 1987 and 1989. In contrast both [ash] Fraxinus and [plane] Platanus attained peak production in the intervening year. Other species such as [chestnut] Castanea, [beech] Fagus and [pine] Pinus seem to exhibit longer cycles which cannot be determined at this stage.”—Someday, vacations will be planned using this kind of ‘nature compatibility’ forecasts...